TUCSON, AZ — Nationally recognized immigrant and reproductive rights activist Alejandra Pablos is set to appear in federal immigration court in Arizona in her effort to appeal for asylum after being targeted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Pablos was singled out and detained by DHS agents during a peaceful protest outside of DHS offices in Virginia in January of 2018, which flagged her case to her case manager in Arizona. She was then taken into custody during her regularly scheduled check in with ICE in Tucson, denied bond, and sent to the Eloy Detention Center for 43 days.

Raised in California and a permanent resident of the U.S., Pablos is a member of Mijente and worked as the Field Coordinator for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, through which she advocates for immigration reform, reproductive rights and criminal justice reform. She is now requesting asylum, given the dangers she would face as an activist deported to Mexico.

Pablos is one of many immigrant rights activists who are now being targeted by ICE to silence dissent by the Trump administration. Other activists targeted and arrested include Ravi Ragbir, a former green card holder from Trinidad and the head of the New Sanctuary Coalition (NSC) in New York City; Jean Montrevil, an immigrant from Haiti who also worked at NSC but was deported despite having lived in the U.S. for over three decades with his four U.S. citizen children; Daniela Vargas, a Mississippi “Dreamer” brought to the U.S. as a child from Argentina, detained minutes after speaking about her experience at a press conference; Maru Mora-Villalpando, a high-profile undocumented activist from Mexico; and Baltazar “Rosas” Aburto Gutiérrez, after he was quoted in The Seattle Times.

***

Mijente is a political, digital, and grassroots hub for Latinx and Chicanx organizing and movement building. Launched in 2015, Mijente seeks to strengthen and increase the participation of Latina/o people in the broader movements for racial, economic, climate and gender justice. @conmijente